A British national and his wife who had complained that P50,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from their bank account via computer banking, were paid the amount yesterday, but they are still considering the filing of charges.

Neil Honeyman and his wife, Ma. Josefina Abueg, had complained to Stephen Abao, manager of the Equitable-PCI Bank Hilado Branch in Bacolod City, on Aug. 18 that the P50,000 had been withdrawn via Fastnet, or computer banking.

"Since we do not have a Fastnet account, then the transaction was carried out by a third party," the Honeymans said.

Mr. Honeyman said it appears that the fraudulent withdrawal of their money had occurred at the Manila end of the bank and he is asking that he be provided with specifics on what exactly happened.

He is considering filing a civil case for damages based on the bank's negligence, but if the bank provides information on who were responsible for the fraudulent transaction, he would instead contemplate filing a criminal case against those who perpetrated it, Honeyman said.

He is filing charges because he wants to get to the bottom of what happened so he and other people don't get victimized again and so the bank will correct the problem, Honeyman added.

Abao said an adjustment was immediately made in the account of Honeyman yesterday and he is still asking their head office to determine how the P50,000 had been withdrawn since the transaction appears to have originated from Manila. However, he said he could not give specifics and was still awaiting a reply so the questions of Mr. Honeyman could be answered.

Honeyman said that, in cooperation with the bank staff, he and his wife obtained a copy of the bank's "Detail Transaction Journal" with the details of their last ten transactions. The journal states that at 10:20:20 a.m. of Aug. 16 he transferred P1,000 to the account of one of his children in Iloilo via phone banking and while he was doing so, someone may have hacked into his account, Honeyman said.

That is because the journal states that in 6 seconds at 10:20:26 a.m. of Aug. 16 a transaction took place during which P50,000 was transferred out of their account by Fastnet, or computer banking, he said.

"Since the time difference is only 6 seconds, we believe the bank's system allowed the fraudulent perpetrator access to our account while we were undertaking our transaction," he said.

"We believe this demonstrates the inadequacy of the bank's system," he said.

According to the bank's "Detail Transaction Journal" the fraudulent transaction took place from "TERM 6652," he said. "We believe the bank has information which enables it to ascertain the location of "Term 6652," Honeyman said.*CPG

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